[/quote] Also the cylinders were honed with torque plates which to me is a big deal if you are going forged and don't want to use a quart of oil every 1,500 miles. Send him a PM.[/quote]

^^
(My experiences/ opinions may vary from yours..) Torque plate honing isn't really necessary in these motors if you have a decent machinist. If you look at where the heads bolt in on some motors, they bolt right through the cylinder wall area which causes distortion upon torquing the cyl heads. This isn't the case on Subaru motors at all...look at where the head bolts run in relation to the bores. Someone got a hard on for torque plate honing these motors years ago and it stuck.

I think people's oil consumption experiences are just from a crappy bore and hone job, crappy piston rings, not cleaning the bores well enough before installation, rather than not being torque plate honed.

FWIW, I run wiseco's that are large enough in the bores that it sounds like a TDI when cold, and this motor uses NO, NONE, ABSOLUTELY ZILCH oil between changes, 5-7k mile interval. I also don't use mobil 1. And this motor has about 40k of downright red headed stepchild abuse on it. It probably sees fuel cut 5-10 times daily, 19psi. I just wanted to say it because if you have a machinist that you trust and they don't have ability to torque plate hone, you don't need it. If it's available and they don't charge you too much for it, go ahead if it makes you feel better. =)